A $200M Cybersecurity Company Escaped the Same Trap I See in EdTech
This isn’t your typical EdTech success story. In fact, the hero of this story isn’t an EdTech company at all. Not even in the same industry. NSFOCUS is a major player in cybersecurity, protecting some of the world’s largest telecom and financial institutions. Now, you might be wondering, “What’s a cybersecurity company’s problems got to do with EdTech?” Stick with me, because this is where it gets interesting.
NSFOCUS came to Juniper with a head-scratcher. Their sales growth had dropped from 25% to 15% the previous year to 7% with projected growth downtrending, yet customers were requesting new product offerings. Lin X., their VP of Engineering, was wrestling with this puzzle, “Customers are requesting new product offerings. We also want to engage more people with this new offering. We'd like to be more industry standard—can we do that?”
Sound like questions you've asked yourself lately?
Lin's team wasn't lacking technical capability. But they were caught between trying to satisfy existing customers who wanted something different and attracting new customers in the competitive US market. Their initial launch had been lackluster, leaving them uncomfortable about their direction. I found myself asking: "Before we think about more engagement, are we engaging the right people in the right way today?" And, "When customers make these requests, what does that conversation typically look like?" These discussions shifted the thinking. The question for you is: "What are your customers actually telling you when they ask for more?"
the challenge
NSFOCUS was caught in a contradiction—declining sales while customers requested new offerings. Sometimes when we hear "build more products" they're actually saying "what you have doesn't work for how we actually operate."
Strategic Assessment
We reframed the question from "How do we get SecOps teams to use our new product?" to "What are SecOps teams actually telling us about our current approach?" Customer requests were feedback about workflow mismatch, not product gaps.
Key Consumer Insight
SecOps teams weren't looking for new comprehensive security tools—they were signaling that current tools didn't fit their daily operations. They wanted to be recognized as organizational heroes. To do that, they needed "lightweight tools that show only what they need," not more sophisticated offerings.
NSFOCUS’s most important, addressable challenge:
Asking the right tactical questions still blinds you from seeing the deeper strategic pattern keeping you stuck—more of the same but better doesn't cut it.
When sales decline while customers request new offerings, it's easy to assume you need to build more products. But sometimes customers are signaling that your current approach doesn't fit their workflow, not that they need additional features.
The highest-leverage decision in this case meant building on their existing strengths and reframing their market approach to serve how SecOps teams desire to work.
This shift changed how they approached everything from product design to market positioning in the US cybersecurity industry—eventually resulting in doubling revenue over the next 36 months.
DEFINING WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON HERE
When thorough thinking becomes the obstacle
It's almost never a lack of effort or work that's not good enough. NSFOCUS already had global credibility, proven technology, and a pattern of success spanning nearly two decades. Yet, they were caught in an uncomfortable position: sales growth had steadily dropped from 25% to 15% to 7% YoY the past 3 years, yet customers were asking for new product offerings. But when their initial US product launch was "fair yet uninspiring", this only added to the confusion.
What emerged through deeper questioning
As our conversations continued, Lin X. began laying out a few of her concerns. Three ideas made their way to the surface:
- “We want to be more industry standard. How can we do things to avoid disrupting our business and team members while avoiding redundant work?”
- "Customers are requesting new product offerings but the initial feedback from our latest product was the need for more assessments for their specific needs."
- "How can we engage more people in this latest product offering?"
This seemed logical—customers want new products, so build new products. But something wasn't connecting.
The pattern NSFOCUS discovered
As we continued exploring these questions together, specific customer feedback began to take on new meaning. Customers had been clear about what they wanted: "lightweight tools that show only what they need," automation instead of manual processes, and reports optimized for their large NOC monitors.
But Lin's natural instinct—like most thorough engineers—had been to interpret this as needing more comprehensive solutions. Better features. More capabilities. More value.
Through our conversations, Lin began to see a different possibility. What if the declining sales wasn't about missing a growth market, but about how they were interpreting customer feedback? What if customers saying they wanted "new product offerings" weren't asking for more products, but signaling that the current approach didn't fit their daily workflow?
This reframing changed everything. The challenge wasn't being more comprehensive—it was being more targeted. SecOps teams didn't want more features; they wanted the right features that fit seamlessly into how they actually worked.
WHEN CLARITY CREATES ITS OWN CHALLENGES
With this new understanding, NSFOCUS could finally see what needed to happen.
user workflow reality
NSFOCUS recognized that SecOps teams wanted targeted efficiency over comprehensive features, they faced an uncomfortable truth: their entire product approach needed to shift. This wasn't about adding user feedback to existing designs—it meant rethinking how SecOps teams actually worked day-to-day.
visbility challenge
SecOps teams weren't just asking for better tools—they wanted to look good to their stakeholders. They were the "unseen guardians" of their organizations, and current tools didn't help them showcase their value upward. How could NSFOCUS help them become organizational heroes?
manual process problem
Customer feedback had been specific about automation, but Lin's team discovered the scope of the challenge. Everything from reporting emails to custom alerts required multiple manual steps. SecOps teams wanted to focus on security threats, not administrative tasks. The question became: how much could they automate without disrupting existing workflows?
“The pleasure is mine. Our team had a great experience working with you. I want to share with you that we are excited to announce to our customers in the very near future.
When pattern recognition becomes focused action.
With clarity about what SecOps teams actually needed, Lin's team began making decisions with a confidence they hadn't felt in months.
When you stop scattering your energy across conflicting strategies, unexpected opportunities emerge. NSFOCUS's focused approach not only resonated with their target SecOps teams but caught the attention of industry experts. The product's elegant simplicity—born from understanding user workflow rather than showcasing technical sophistication—earned recognition they hadn't anticipated.
The product won the "State of the Art" award in the Cloud Security category at the INFOSEC RCA conference—not because it was the most feature-rich, but because it solved real workflow problems elegantly.
The numbers speak for themselves: revenue had grown from $199M to $404M over the next 36 months.
Since launching the redesigned NSFOCUS product offering:
Win
$404M
